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Have Ginger, Will Mix

By Eric Asimov August 24, 2009 12:19 pmAugust 24, 2009 12:19 pm

Michael C. York for The New York TimesThe Dark and Stormy cocktail.

I’m happy to say that I will be on vacation through Labor Day. This time I’m going to take a complete break, which means I won’t be blogging until I return to work (at least, I don’t think I will). So, please, have a great two weeks.

Before I go, though, I want to tell you one more thing. A few days ago, I had a bottle of ginger beer from Fever Tree, a sort of high-end producer of sodas and mixers. I loved it – it was intensely gingery, very spicy, and reminded me of house-made ginger beers I had tasted in Jamaican restaurants.

It was so good, I decided I would toast my vacation with a cocktail. Trouble was, I could find very few cocktail recipes that incorporated ginger beer. Well, the Dark and Stormy, of course, and the closely related Moscow Mule. The only difference between the two, in fact is that one is made with dark rum and the other with vodka (guess which is which).

I’m not much of a vodka drinker, and the Dark and Stormy seemed too simple. But the usual suspects – Dale DeGroff, Gary Regan and even our own Pete Wells had little additional to offer.

So, if it was to be a Dark and Stormy, I wouldn’t complain. It’s kind of the national cocktail of Bermuda, a place I love but am not going to get to this year. So, a Dark and Stormy, for a Bermudian state of mind.

Now, I hate cocktail recipes that specify which brand of spirits to use without explaining why that brand is desirable. So I will say that while Gosling’s Black Seal Rum generally gets the nod for Dark and Stormies, and it’s a decent enough rum, any good dark rum will do.

In a high-ball glass filled with ice, pour in two ounces of dark rum. Add four ounces of ginger beer and a squirt of fresh lime juice. Stir, garnish with a lime wedge and serve. Ahhhh.

As I offer a toast to the rest of the summer, I’m still wondering. Can anybody recommend some decent cocktails that use ginger beer, save these two classics? An Internet search revealed any number of commercial recipes, created mostly to sell whatever brand of repellent schnapps a company is pushing, but nothing that really caught my eye. Suggestions welcome!

Go to diffordsguide.com and search their database. Simon Difford is a UK drinks guru. You can search for Ginger Beer or Jamican style ginger beer under mixers. I haven’t tried these recipes but it should be worth a shot.

There is an interesting twist on the Dark and Stormy that you might enjoy. Using the same portions as your recipe, fill the glass with ice and add the Ginger Beer. Pour the Gosling’s Black Seal on top. Add a squirt of fresh lime juice and serve without stirring. Delicious!

One of our favorite Summer drinks the last few years has been ginger beer mixed with a good dark microbrew. We even have snuck the ginger beer into restaurants to mix with the beer they serve. Though this mix is probably not a big secret, we first discovered it at the People’s Pint in Northhampton Mass, where they call it the Farmer’s Daughter.

Hi,
Just a little more info on the Dark ‘n Stormy:
I am from Bermuda and therefore am quite well weathered in the area of Bermudian cocktails.
FYI – the Dark ‘n Stormy is actually a trademarked cocktail – it may be the only cocktail in the world to hold a trademark.
The drink that you have mixed in this article is technically not a Dark ‘n Stormy.
For it to legally be called a Dark ‘n Stormy it must contain Gosling’s Black Seal Rum and either Bermuda Stone Ginger Beer (Barrit’s) or Gosling’s new brand of Ginger Beer – “Stormy Ginger Beer.”
These are the only ingredients that will make the drink an authentic Dark ‘n Stormy.
We take pride in our national cocktail in Bermuda – it is actually something that Bermudians are very particular about.
Jamaican and Caribbean Ginger Beers are generally deemed too spicy to capture the essence of the drink.
Anyway just thought i would comment in defense of my country’s important cultural assets
-thanks

Eric:
I was at a small restaurant in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts this past May (sorry, I can’t remember the name) and we had a nice cocktail with ginger beer, Maker’s Mark bourbon, and Amaretto (of all things!!). Served on the rocks. It was delicious! I don’t know the precise measurements, but you may want to play around with it until you come up with right recipe. I’m glad you brought this up because I just might experiment later tonight! I hope you have a great vacation!

The Ginger Rogers is very similar to the Gin-Gin Mule, but is adapted from the Favorite Cocktail from Jacques Straub’s simply titled “Drinks” (1914). I sometimes call it “a Mojito, but backwards, in high heels.” Muddle a few sprigs of mint in a tall glass with lemon juice & ginger syrup, add gin & ice, top with ginger beer.

I love a Rum Buck with a dash of bitters. Just a squeeze of lime is enough to cut the sweetness. The flavor of the rum comes through well, and I usually try a few different rums in a sitting prepared the same way.

I’ve recently started experimenting with ginger beer to up the ginger flavour in a rye and ginger (Canadian rye, Canadian Club being my preference for this drink, Crown Royal is too smooth to cut through the ginger flavour).

Basically just mix a rye and ginger ( I tend towards half and half) and top off with a splash or two of jamaican ginger beer to add more ginger flavour.

I like the idea of the ginger mojito too though. My vacation starts friday, i’ll have to give it a shot.

Any rum will NOT do. A Dark ‘n’ Stormy is actually requires Goslings Black Seal rum. I have tried several variations of rum and Goslings really makes a difference. I found that the ginger beer used makes less of a difference. It does have to be ginger beer, ginger ale wont do.

I got hooked on the Dark and Stormy around 25 years ago while in Bermuda. Back on the mainland I was never able to re-create them, despite the fact that I owned restaurant for ten years. The rum part was fine, but the ginger beer was either a commercial brand (too whimpy) or some micro-brewed stuff from Maine or Vermont that was way to hot.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across the newly available Gosling Ginger Beer. I mixed up a batch and was shot back in time to the pinks sands of that enchanted island.

Fever Tree is very good, but I recently made a surprisiing ginger discovery. After years of trying all the upper scale ginger ales and ginger beers I could find, I bought a bottle of Goya “Jamaican Style” ginger beer. I had seen it for years in my supermarket but snobbishly thought that Goya had to be bad.

Wow! I was so wrong. This ginger beer is amazing. Very gingery, very spicy. It even has a touch of capsicum. I’ve yet to find something I like better. And it’s reasonable.